Weekly Roundup

I like a good conspiracy theory particularly if I can see that it might just be true. This one recently caught my attention and it goes like this: The government is desperate to meet its Co2 emission targets, but everything indicates that it's going to miss them by a country mile. The Met Office is owned by the government. In order to reduce the number of car journeys, the Met Office, under government instructions, consistently forecasts a misleading outlook, predicting the weather will be much worse than it knows to be the case. 

Before you dismiss this out of hand, take a minute to reflect on the number of times you've enjoyed some excellent cycling weather despite being told to expect rain. Of course it could be that even in the 21st century the art of correctly predicting the weather isn't quite the exact science we thought it might be.

I recently spotted this beauty on ebay. It's apparently a Hercules around 60 years old. The bike has emerged from a long period of hibernation. As you can see, it's desperately in need of restoration or should that be destruction. Anyway, if you're looking for a project to fill those long winter evenings, there's six days of the auction left and at a starting price of £14.99, a chance to pick up a bargain. Collection will be from Tytherington, South Gloucestershire, so not too far away.

Meanwhile, those of us who take an interest in what other members are up to on Strava, will have noticed the extraordinary exploits of our very own Mike Greer. Not only did Mike cycle all the way to Barrow in Furness, after resting up for a few days, he then cut across country and carried on into Scotland. Mike was last recorded as being at Rosyth. Lesser mortals might at this stage be considering a relaxing train ride home, but this is Mike we're talking about and so expect to see a wiggly red line heading southwards anytime soon.

After an early season lull, the Wednesday evening ride is once again proving as popular as ever. There were two groups last Wednesday. If you haven't been before, please come along and give the ride a try.

Eight riders set off from the Cross Hayes on Saturday for our run to the Sweetapples Tea Room at Marshfield. We rode as one group. Howard's clever routing took us along some unfamiliar lanes. We were met there by Phil. On the return leg Malc identified a couple of Strava segments and just for fun, some of us did our best to improve our rankings. 

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/course/6585923

George (back row, first on the left) on the camp with riders from fourteen different countries

George has spent the last five days in Athens, USA on the Team Novo Nordisk Talent ID Camp.

Novo Nordisk is a major pharmaceutical company. One of its key products is medication and devices used in the care of diabetes. They have their own professional cycling team, all of whom are type 1 diabetics, which will again be taking part in this year's Tour of Britain.

The purpose of the camp is to try and identify those riders who have the potential to eventually break through into the professional team.

Pye Corner, Chepstow

The success of our Sunday Series ride to Chepstow, gave rise to the suggestion that we should make it a destination for a Saturday club ride. The plan is to take a direct route there and back, which should keep the total mileage down to about 60. We've a tried and tested lunch stop in the centre of Chepstow which has a good selection of reasonably priced snacks and cake. The main objective will be to get everyone to Chepstow and home again afterwards. No one will be dropped. If anyone is interested, but not convinced that the complete trip is for them, there are plenty of places to stop and wait at until rejoining the group on its way back.

A date has now been fixed in the calendar for the ride to take place on Saturday 29th August 2015.